Financing Deals: 14 July 2010

Pacific Biosciences in Menlo Park, California, a developer of molecular biology technology, announced completion of a new round of financing worth $109 million. This round includes a previously announced $50 million investment by Gen-Probe Inc., a maker of molecular diagnostic products and services. Hugh Martin, Pacific Biosciences’s chairman and CEO says the funding will be used on the company’s first product, a DNA sequencing system.

Trevena Inc. in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, a drug discovery company specializing in G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) biased ligands, completed today a $35 million round of new financing. Existing investors Polaris Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates led the round, with all other current Trevena investors — Alta Partners, Healthcare Ventures and Yasuda Enterprise Development Company — also taking part. The company plans to use the proceeds in a Phase II study of Trevena’s lead molecule, TRV120027, which the company says could provide a major advance in the treatment of acute heart failure, and to continue building Trevena’s portfolio of GPCR biased ligands.

GE Capital, Healthcare Financial Services in Bethesda, Maryland today announced provision of a $3.2 million credit facility to Tepha Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts. Tepha is a developer of medical devices — sutures, meshes, and films — derived from a new class of resorbable polymers engineered with recombinant DNA technology. The financing provides Tepha with working capital to expands global its commercialization efforts.

BÂRRX Medical Inc. in Sunnyvale, California today announced the closing of a $15 million financing round, led by new investor Highland Capital Partners with existing investors Delphi Ventures, Alloy Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Greenspring Associates and others. BÂRRX Medical, Inc. develops endoscopic treatment solutions for treating precancerous lesions of the esophagus as well as other chronic gastrointestinal diseases.